Latest / Crafted Clarity: Distilling the Tension Between Success and Significance / How Did We Get Here — And Is It Where You Were Built to Go? | The Mash Bill | Crafted Clarity

Transcript

How Did We Get Here — And Is It Where You Were Built to Go? | The Mash Bill | Crafted Clarity · Crafted Clarity: Distilling the Tension Between Success and Significance

• 0:02
  There's a line from the 1980's pop song Once in a Lifetime by
• 0:06
  the Talking Heads that gets me every time.
• 0:10
  The singer David Byrne suddenly wakes up to the life he's been
• 0:13
  living and says, how did I get here?
• 0:17
  And then the realization hits him, This is not my beautiful
• 0:21
  house. This is not my beautiful wife.
• 0:25
  It's a moment of epiphany. He suddenly realizes the life
• 0:30
  he's living doesn't quite match the one he imagined building.
• 0:35
  But this this isn't just a line from an an iconic pop saw.
• 0:39
  It's a moment that shows up for leaders more often than we talk
• 0:43
  about. Sometimes it happens when a
• 0:45
  leader looks at the organization they're leading and realizes it
• 0:49
  doesn't quite resemble what they originally set out to create.
• 0:54
  Other times, it shows up when leaders look at their progress
• 0:57
  and realize they're much farther from the mission than they
• 1:00
  expected to be by now. And occasionally, it's even more
• 1:06
  disorienting than that. A leader looks around and
• 1:09
  realizes they're responsible for an organization they barely
• 1:14
  recognize anymore. They've drifted.
• 1:18
  Over time, motion replaced the clarity that used to guide the
• 1:22
  work. Goals became more aggressive.
• 1:26
  Initiatives multiplied. New opportunities drew
• 1:30
  attention. Momentum carried things forward
• 1:34
  and fast. And somewhere along the way, the
• 1:38
  original vision and mission became harder to see and harder
• 1:43
  to steward. Now here's an interesting
• 1:47
  question. When a master distiller opens a
• 1:50
  barrel of aging whiskey years after it was first filled, do
• 1:55
  they ever stop and ask, how do we get here?
• 2:00
  The answer is a pretty clear no, because long before the whiskey
• 2:05
  even entered the barrel, the distiller already knew what they
• 2:09
  were trying to create. And there's a lot we can learn
• 2:12
  from that. Here's something fascinating
• 2:19
  about the way great whiskey is made.
• 2:22
  Distillers don't start with the process, they start with the
• 2:26
  outcome. Long before whiskey ever enters
• 2:30
  a barrel, the distiller already has a clear picture of what
• 2:33
  they're trying to create. They know the kind of whiskey
• 2:37
  they want that bottle to become. Is it bold and full bodied?
• 2:42
  Light and approachable, complex with layers that unfold over
• 2:47
  time. That and vision shapes every
• 2:51
  single decision the distiller makes.
• 2:54
  The mash bill, the mix of grains that form the foundation of the
• 2:58
  whiskey, the type is still used to distill it.
• 3:03
  The barrels that will hold the whiskey as it ages, even where
• 3:07
  those barrels sit in the Rick house and how long they have to
• 3:11
  age it all must align with the distillers vision of the whiskey
• 3:15
  they are trying to create. No decision is ever random.
• 3:22
  Everyone is guided by the same question.
• 3:26
  What are we trying to create? The distiller starts with the
• 3:30
  end in mind and then works backwards.
• 3:35
  Every step of the process is carefully crafted because it
• 3:38
  moves the spirit closer to that intended outcome.
• 3:43
  That's why when a distiller opens a barrel years later,
• 3:46
  they're not surprised by what they find.
• 3:49
  They expected it because the end shaped the journey from the very
• 3:54
  beginning, guiding every person, every process, and every
• 3:59
  decision along the way. Unfortunately, unlike
• 4:04
  distillers, most leaders don't have the luxury of starting at
• 4:08
  the beginning of the process. They usually step into the
• 4:12
  middle of it. Some are brought in to fix the
• 4:15
  organization that has lost its way.
• 4:19
  Others are hired to accelerate growth.
• 4:22
  Some inherit something healthy and are asked to steward what's
• 4:26
  already working to maintain the momentum and trajectory.
• 4:32
  And even founders who technically start at the
• 4:34
  beginning eventually find themselves leading an
• 4:37
  organization that has grown far beyond its original shape.
• 4:43
  In other words, leaders rarely start with a clean slate.
• 4:47
  They start mid process. But no matter where a leader
• 4:51
  begins, the end principle still holds.
• 4:56
  They still need to have the end clearly in mind.
• 5:01
  In whiskey making, one of the earliest and most important
• 5:04
  decisions a distiller makes is the mash bill.
• 5:09
  The mash bill is the carefully crafted mix of grains that forms
• 5:13
  the foundation of the whiskey. For distillers, those
• 5:17
  ingredients are things like corn, rye, wheat, malted barley.
• 5:23
  Each grain contribute something different to the spirit, flavor,
• 5:28
  texture, structure. Distillers don't just throw
• 5:32
  ingredients together and hope for the best.
• 5:36
  They carefully source and curate the mash bill based on the
• 5:39
  outcome. They're trying to create the
• 5:42
  character of the whiskey itself. Leadership has its own version
• 5:48
  of a mash bill. It's the people, the culture,
• 5:53
  the systems, the resources, the priorities that shaped the
• 5:57
  organization. And just like a distiller
• 6:00
  refining the mash bill, leaders often need to adjust what's in
• 6:04
  the mix if they want the organization to become what it
• 6:08
  was meant to be. Sometimes that means bringing in
• 6:12
  new people. Sometimes it means moving people
• 6:16
  into roles where they can thrive.
• 6:19
  And sometimes it means letting certain things go because of the
• 6:24
  foundation doesn't align with the end you're trying to create.
• 6:28
  Teams became chasing the wrong things.
• 6:31
  Organizations start saying one thing and doing another.
• 6:36
  Strategy becomes something that's selectively referenced or
• 6:40
  even worse, ignored. And eventually someone looks
• 6:45
  around and asks the same question we started with How did
• 6:50
  we get here? But when the leader starts with
• 6:53
  the end in mind, they begin shaping the organization with
• 6:57
  the same intentionality A distiller uses when crafting a
• 7:01
  whiskey, because the foundation always determines what the
• 7:05
  spirit will become. But there's something else that
• 7:10
  happens when a leader starts thinking about the end at first.
• 7:15
  That clarity helps the leader align the organization.
• 7:18
  It sharpens the mission. It helps leaders align and
• 7:22
  motivate their people. It brings focus to the strategy
• 7:26
  and the resources required to pursue it.
• 7:29
  When the end is clear, when the mission and the impact the
• 7:33
  organization was built to make are clearly in view, it becomes
• 7:37
  easier to see what belongs in the mix and what doesn't.
• 7:43
  But eventually, the question doesn't stay focused on the
• 7:46
  organization. It begins to turn inward because
• 7:52
  the same principle that guides A distiller also applies to you
• 7:56
  and I. The distiller knows what that
• 8:00
  bottle was meant to become. That clarity shapes every
• 8:03
  decision along the way. Everything aligns to what the
• 8:08
  whiskey was built for. And at some point, we begin
• 8:13
  asking a similar question about ourselves, not just what are we
• 8:18
  building as an organization about something deeper.
• 8:23
  Is what I'm leading aligned with what I was built for?
• 8:30
  Leadership isn't just about building something successful.
• 8:34
  It's about stewarding something meaningful in a way that
• 8:37
  reflects who you were created to be.
• 8:42
  Let me be clear on this. This isn't about walking away
• 8:45
  from work, and it isn't about abandoning the organization.
• 8:49
  In fact, in many cases, it means just the opposite.
• 8:54
  It means stepping more fully into the responsibility of
• 8:57
  leadership, with greater clarity about who you are and how you
• 9:02
  were meant to lead. The organization has a mission.
• 9:06
  It was built to serve. In fact, it's probably written
• 9:09
  somewhere in the office. But the leader also has a
• 9:13
  purpose. They were built to steward.
• 9:17
  When those two things begin to align, leadership stops feeling
• 9:21
  like a constant pressure and starts feeling more like true
• 9:25
  stewardship. And that's that's the moment
• 9:29
  when the tension we talk about here becomes visible, the
• 9:34
  tension between what we built and what we're built for.
• 9:39
  And when that alignment begins to take shape, something else
• 9:42
  becomes clearer, too. Just like the distiller refining
• 9:47
  the spirit, leaders begin to see what no longer belongs.
• 9:54
  And that's what the metaphor of whiskey distillation becomes so
• 9:57
  powerful for leadership. Distillation isn't about adding
• 10:02
  anything else. It's about removing what doesn't
• 10:05
  belong. When whiskey is distilled, the
• 10:09
  goal isn't simply to move the liquid through a still.
• 10:13
  The goal is to separate the spirit from everything that
• 10:16
  would dilute it or distort its character.
• 10:20
  That process involves heat and pressure.
• 10:25
  The elements of the mixture begin to separate from one
• 10:28
  another, and the distiller carefully pulls off only the
• 10:33
  part of the spirit that belongs in the final bottle.
• 10:38
  Distillation doesn't add a single thing to the mesh, it
• 10:42
  simply removes what doesn't belong.
• 10:45
  Our leadership should work the same way.
• 10:49
  When the impact of the organization exists to create
• 10:53
  becomes clear. When the end is in view, leaders
• 10:58
  begin to see things differently and more clearly.
• 11:02
  The initiatives that don't fit, the priorities that no longer
• 11:07
  align, the opportunities that would only become distractions,
• 11:13
  those begin to fall away. If they were to stay, they would
• 11:18
  dilute the spirit of what the organization was built to do.
• 11:23
  And the same thing begins to happen within the leader.
• 11:28
  As leaders become clearer about who they were built to be, they
• 11:32
  begin to see what belongs in their leadership and what
• 11:38
  doesn't. Certain pressures begin to lose
• 11:42
  their grip. Certain expectations no longer
• 11:45
  define their decisions. Certain ambitions that once felt
• 11:50
  important begin to fade. That's when clarity finally has
• 11:56
  surfaced. And just like distillation, that
• 11:59
  clarity comes from removing what doesn't belong.
• 12:05
  There's a great real world example of this in the whiskey
• 12:08
  world. A man named Bill Samuels Senior
• 12:13
  was part of a long line of Kentucky distillers.
• 12:17
  His family had involved and involved in bourbon for
• 12:20
  generations. But when he set out to create
• 12:23
  what eventually became Maker's Mark in the 1950s, he wasn't
• 12:28
  interested in simply repeating what everyone else was already
• 12:31
  doing at the time. Many bourbons had a sharp
• 12:36
  bitterness to them, a strong bite that came from the heavy
• 12:39
  use of rye in the mash bill. Some drinkers loved the
• 12:45
  intensity, but Samuels believed that that there was a large
• 12:48
  group of people who wanted something different.
• 12:52
  So he wanted to create a spirit that was smoother, more
• 12:56
  approachable, a whiskey people could enjoy without fighting
• 13:00
  that bitterness. So instead of following
• 13:04
  tradition, he did something unusual.
• 13:08
  He removed rye from the mash bill entirely and replace it
• 13:12
  with red winter wheat. That single decision changed
• 13:17
  everything. The wheat softened the flavor,
• 13:21
  it created a smoother and rounder spirit, and it became
• 13:26
  the signature profile that Maker's Mark is still known for
• 13:30
  today. But here's the part that we
• 13:34
  shouldn't miss. While Bill Samuels replaced one
• 13:38
  of the ingredients of the mash, he didn't start with the
• 13:41
  ingredients. He started with the experience.
• 13:45
  He wanted people to have the impact of the bourbon.
• 13:50
  Once his vision was clear, every other decision, the mash bill,
• 13:55
  the distillation, the aging, it all aligned with that outcome.
• 14:02
  He started with the end in mind. Here's a simple exercise you
• 14:10
  might want to sit with for a moment.
• 14:13
  Distillers are constantly asking one very simple question.
• 14:18
  What kind of whiskey are we trying to create?
• 14:22
  That question guides everything. The mash bill, the distillation,
• 14:28
  the aging, every decision they make along the way.
• 14:33
  Leaders rarely ask the question in the same way.
• 14:37
  But maybe we should What kind of organization are we actually
• 14:42
  trying to create? What kind of impact is it meant
• 14:46
  to have? And just as important, what kind
• 14:50
  of leader do we want to be in the process?
• 14:55
  I'm not talking about the role, not talking about the title, but
• 14:59
  the person. Because clarity is about what
• 15:03
  the end looks like, and it has a way of revealing what belongs in
• 15:08
  the mix and what doesn't. If you've ever gone to a whiskey
• 15:16
  tasting, you usually write down notes about what you
• 15:19
  experienced, things that stood out, and things you want to
• 15:22
  remember. Insights you don't want to lose
• 15:26
  once the moment passes. Here are my tasting notes from
• 15:30
  today's conversation. Yours might be different.
• 15:34
  First, leaders rarely. Leaders and organizations rarely
• 15:40
  drift because they stop caring. They drift because motion slowly
• 15:46
  replaces clarity. Goals expand, initiatives
• 15:51
  multiply. Opportunities compete for
• 15:54
  attention, and over time, the original mission becomes harder
• 15:59
  to see. Second, great distillers start
• 16:04
  with the end first, not the process.
• 16:08
  They begin with the experience they want the whiskey to create.
• 16:13
  That vision shapes the mash bill, the distillation, the
• 16:17
  aging, every decision along the way.
• 16:21
  Leadership should work the same way.
• 16:25
  When the mission of the organization was built to serve
• 16:28
  is clearly in view, it becomes easier to see what belongs in
• 16:33
  the mix and what doesn't. And finally, distillation isn't
• 16:39
  about adding more, it's about removing what doesn't belong.
• 16:45
  When clarity about the mission and clarity about who you were
• 16:49
  built to be as a leader begin to align, something powerful
• 16:54
  happens. The distractions fall away, the
• 16:58
  pressures that wants to find your leadership lose their grip,
• 17:02
  and what remains is the spirit of the work you were meant to
• 17:06
  steward. If you'd like to revisit these
• 17:12
  ideas later, you can find the full tasting notes for each
• 17:15
  episode on the Crafted Clarity website.
• 17:21
  Let's go back to that great line from the Talking Heads.
• 17:25
  How did I get here? For many leaders, that question
• 17:29
  shows up as a moment of disorientation, realizing that
• 17:34
  the organization, the work, or even the leadership journey
• 17:38
  doesn't quite resemble what they once imagined.
• 17:42
  But when leaders begin with the end clearly in mind, when the
• 17:47
  mission and impact the organization was built to create
• 17:50
  remain in view, and when leaders continue to align their own
• 17:56
  leadership with who they were built to be, we won't one day
• 18:01
  wake up and wondering how we got there.
• 18:04
  We'll know. Thanks for joining me in the
• 18:08
  tasting room. And remember, clarity isn't
• 18:11
  found, it's crafted. Thanks for listening to Crafted
• 18:18
  Clarity. If you're a leader wrestling
• 18:20
  with the tension between success and significance, or if you're
• 18:23
  trying to align your work with a deeper calling, I'd love to
• 18:26
  connect with you. If your organization is facing
• 18:29
  questions about strategy, whether it's alignment, ROI, or
• 18:33
  building confidence in your team, this is the work we do
• 18:36
  every day at ibrand. And if you walk this journey
• 18:39
  yourself, or maybe you're right in the middle of it, I'd love to
• 18:42
  hear your story and maybe even share it here on the podcast.
• 18:46
  You can find me at craftclarity.net.